Puzzledd

About:I live on the outskirts of Melbourne with my husband and my 20-year-old son. I love the way I can just look out of my window and see gum trees, hills and bird visitors (kookaburras, magpies, rosellas, cockatoos, blue wrens and many more all visit occasionally) - plus kangaroos with their joeys. I teach Reading Intervention at a local primary school, and I like to explore new ideas to motivate and help my students. I have set up several websites to share my teaching resources and ideas (and some fun things), such as computer jigsaws: www.epuzzled.net ; www.free-fun-n-games.webs.com and www.poems-for-children.webs.com plus a site for folk-style guitar: www.cathyschords.com... and my newest site with photos of animals etc : www.mypics.22web.net.

Yes, it's absolutely horrible. New Zealand is like our close cousins; in fact my sister-in-law is from there but up north. I've been to Christchurch; it was a lovely city, and I can't bear to think of all the destruction, let alone the suffering and death. Our part of the world seems to be having more than its fair share of storms, floods, fire and now quakes.

That's weird...my reply from the other day has vanished. Sorry about your camera :( Can you try wiping out the battery case with an absorbent cloth? Maybe leave something in there to absorb the battery fluid, and tip it upside down to encourage it to run out? That won't hurt it at least.

Repairs are SO expensive - probably more than the camera is worth now.

Maybe gently rub the terminals with fine sandpaper in case they are corroded by the battery acid- tho unlike;ly unless the batteries were in there for a long time, unused (and you'd have to be very careful not to get any sand dust in the camera itself!)

My dad used to repair cameras, was very handy when he was alive. These days, though, they're not made to repair, just throw away and upgrade, unless you get into the very expensive models.

I'm still missing my new camera that I left in the country- haven't had a chance to go and pick it up yet. I'm lucky I have my little compact Lumix, which is OK for basic shots.

I've been making more "clipart" images for my website. The bee-eater one was very popular on flickr so I had to make a better one. I did this one on the weekend and it had nearly 50 views in the first day.

Oh, what a pest. Do you have another lead like that anywhere in your family? I have several the same- from my external hard drive, my old Motorola mobile phone, my old camera...handy, as I always misplace them, and the S5is uses the standard plug (not like my Lumix and my Samsung phone, which have a smaller plug). Check what leads you have that plug into your computer... or other digital appliances. Or you can get cheap card readers (or leads) ;)